Nexus 4 vs HTC One X+, the personal preference

At Phones Review we often bring readers comparisons of the latest smartphones as this can be useful when trying to decide your next phone purchase. We thought it was time to take a look at the Nexus 4 vs. HTC One X+ and much of your decision between these two phones will come down to personal preference. Both are grabbing a lot of attention right now so let’s see what they have to offer.

With the holiday season fast approaching the HTC One X+ (or One X Plus) is an upgrade to the One X and has just been released (in some regions with the US to come shortly). The LG Nexus 4 (also known as the Google Nexus 4) is due to release next week and is creating big waves as it’s the next pure Google Nexus device that many Android enthusiasts will seek out. We’ll take a look at some of the major specs and features of each handset to see how they compare.

Display
A 4.7-inch True HD IPS Plus LCD display with resolution of 1280 x 768 and 318ppi features on the Nexus 4 while the HTC One X+ has a 4.7-inch S-LCD 2 display with resolution of 1280 x 720 and 312ppi. Both displays are excellent and the screen size is also the same so that not a deciding factor here.

RAM and Storage
The Nexus 4 has 2GB of RAM but as we’ve mentioned before only comes in 8 or 16GB internal memory options and this is also non-expandable. This could be a big drawback for many and it’s somewhat surprising that this letdown slipped through the net. The HTC One X+ however has 1GB of RAM but 32 or 64GB of internal storage, also non-expandable but much higher in the first place

Camera
There’s an 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video capture on the Nexus 4, along with a 1.3-megapixel front-facing shooter and a new Panorama PhotoSphere feature. The HTC One X+ on the other hand has an 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video capture, as well as a 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera with 720p video recording. Once again both of these camera set-ups are excellent and each have plenty more camera features that we have not room to go into detail about here.

Operating System
Now this is a big one as we have said that the Nexus 4 is the next pure vanilla Google smartphone and as such will release running the next Android OS update, 4.2 Jelly Bean. This will be a huge draw for Google Android enthusiasts. The HTC One X+ releases on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the latest OS at this point in time but is also skinned with HTC Sense 4.0 UI. Whether having the very latest operating system is the main factor for you is something that only you can decide but of course some simply prefer pure Android while others might like the Sense user interface.

Battery
Nothing in it here to help you determine which is best as both are equipped with a 2100mAh battery. This is claimed to provide around 15 hours of 3G talktime on the Nexus 4 but there are no figures available just yet for the HTC One X+.

Dimensions and weight
The Nexus 4 measures 133.9mm x 68.7mm x 9.1mm and weighs in at 139g. The One X+ measures 134.36mm x 69.9mm x 8.9mm and weighs 135g so as you can see there is very little difference.

Pricing
The Nexus 4 will be on T-Mobile in the US and sold through Google Play unlocked at $299 for the 8GB model or $349 for the 16GB model. Those prices are pretty amazing for a phone with such great specs. The HTC One X+ will cost between $600 and $700 unlocked or around $199 on a two-year contract. This could well be a major factor in helping you decide which phone will suit you best then.

As you can see from these details both phones are impressive and in some ways are very similar. Other aspects that you might also consider are the designs. The Nexus 4 is only available in black while the One X+ is available in black, gray or white but both are in our opinion very decent looking phones with nice styling. Again this is very much a personal preference though and this may ultimately help you to choose between the two. Both phones also have NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, WiFi, WiFi Direct and both lack LTE connectivity, so again more similarities. We should point out that both phones have plenty more features but we have highlighted the main details that you may be looking for.

We’re interested to hear your thoughts on the Nexus 4 and One X+. Will the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS of the Nexus 4 win you over? Maybe the larger internal storage of the HTC One X+ will make this your choice? If you were to choose one of these two phones right now, which one would you opt for? Let us have your comments.

Comments

33 thoughts on “Nexus 4 vs HTC One X+, the personal preference”

One X+ all the way. Sexiest design ever by far, huge storage, nVidia backed graphics and TegraZone, PlayStation certified, super durable design that will last for long time unlike iphonynexus glass structure, and did I say its dangerously sexy?

Nexus 4 all the way!! Has everything the One X+ has except for storage & LTE! But it makes up for it with the newest and greatest version of Android. Did I say price? Don’t think so. at half the price of the One X+, so basically when you buy the One X
+ over the Nexus, your simply saying that LTE & Sd card slot combined costs another $300 – $400 ?? The Nexus 4 has changed the game & now all this other prices look hugely unreasonable!

There is no battery hit with LTE if you’re in an area that has full LTE coverage. I’ve been using my One X in an LTE area and the battery life is actually BETTER than it used to be with my 4G-only sim card.

HTC One X+, please. It comes down to personal preference, but there are quite a few things about the One X+ (looks, storage capacity, LTE) that tip the scales in its favor.

Further, anyone who complains about Sense without experiencing it is blowing hot air. I’ve had two HTC phones so far, and Sense only adds to the Android experience. It isn’t overly intrusive, and it still manages to keep the vanilla Android feel. In fact, I prefer Sense over vanilla Android.

All glass case, WTF are you people on? What idiot takes their phone out of their home, regardless of what its made out of (the nexus is not all glass, jesus christ) without a damn case/skin?! That’s just bananas to me! I work in a kitchen, in that environment if you want to keep your phone, you DO NOT use it without a case/skin.

I have the nexus 4 and usually keep the Ringke Slim case on it, but still recently found scratches on the back, which ac tually seem to have got there from the ridiculous effort of taking the case off. Using a case does not always guarantee protection.

The statement in the article, that the One X+ uses Sense 4.0 is simply wrong. It has Sense 4.5 (AKA Sense 4+) As far as I can tell this version is a significant step forward. I’ve been using vanilla Android for a while and I really have to say, that Sense 4.5 greatly improves the usability in all kinds of everyday situations.

Damn you HTC for creating the sexiest phone/camera but ruining it with your tegra 3 battery sucking GPU .5hour of battery life with 2100mah? seriously?. And damn you nexus 4 for a gr8 phone but no more than 16GB of storage..??? seriously??? Guess I will just have to skip purchasing these phone and wait again for the next best thing. Hopefully LG decides a 64GB version of nexus4 a month later…

I would venture to say, 80% of anyone here preferring Nexus 4 is looking at it from the respect of not having to sign a 2-yr contract with the carrier. And 80% of the HTC fans here probably already own an HTC. With Nexus 4, this is a major price breakthrough to get an unlocked phone with these kind of specs for under $400. And with all the younger crowd craving a new device every 6-12 months, there should be no surprise how fast it sold out. However the price difference is not as much as you might expect. AT&T released HTCX+ today, pre-order. The non-contract price is $549. This is for a 64GB LTE phone. The 16GB Nexus is $349. A 32GB micro SD is about $25, so you still end up with only 48GB, and the price difference is now down to $175. Considerable though. So throw out price and it boils down to how giddy you are over getting vanilla Android Jelly Bean 4.2 or, 4.1 with Sense 4.5 (+) and LTE. For me I got the HTCX+ for $199 as my contract was up for renewal and I want LTE if I’m using locking myself into something for 18-24 months. If you are a penny pincher and are up for contract renewal, upgrade to an iPhone 5 for $299-$499, sell it on E-bay for $850-$1150 depending on what memory capacity, then buy an unlocked HTC with the profit. (Figure in 8% Ebay+PayPal fees though) The bigger picture here is that Google is really headed in a major positive direction with the NEXUS brand.

i have just bought HTC One X+ last night, would have waited for Lumia 920 but no official release date as of yet. I chose between S3 and OneX+ and ultimately decided to go for OneX+ because of faster processor and bigger storage space. I love the design, i love the specs, i love htc.

um the one x+ has LTE the nexus does not i owne an htc one x+ (evare_ul) and its tegra based quad core 1.7 ghz plus 1 500 mhz processor for battery management. it has a 12 core upl geForce graphics card and is running android 4.1.1 with the an update to 4.2.2 sense 5 as soon as the carriers sign off on the rom.the screen on the device reads at 4.8 inches. it is not playstation certiofied as that lies with sony. the battery is considerably better than the nexus 4 provideing you take the steps to properly manage the use. ( it uses alot of power ) especially with the 1.7 cpu. the nexus 4 is essentially a peice of crap if you drop it ( sorry google ) where as the htc one x+ can withstand more than average damage as long as you dont drop it a certain way on the screen. the camera on the device may not have photospere on it however it does have an hdr setting, and with the update looming on the horizion we will be getting zoe and something about the cameras density will be updated to allow more light content to filter through the pixels for a better picture. (ultrpixels) and the beats audio kills stock androids equalizer and will be getting boomsound when the update is released. please do your research before you post something that people will read and will most likely influence their descion as to what device to purchase. thanks

“…something about the cameras density will be updated to allow more light
content to filter through the pixels for a better picture.”
I literally laughed out loud while reading this, if you knew anything about technology, you would know that the camera density is a hardware spec, and obviously can’t just be update through software.

About us

Phonesreview.co.uk, obviously as the name suggests is a site dedicated around the news of the present day Mobile Phones. Handsets have gone through an entire reformation, from the old chunky mobile phones to new world of hybrid devices such as SmartPhones and PDAs. Phones Review reports about all the hottest announcements, launches and ongoing developments in the world of the portable electronic mobile devices.